He still loves me. And that's a wonderful comfort, you know, in the world in which we live. It really is. It's a strange world. And we've already been reminded that Cyprus isn't the Cyprus that some of us came to. And yet, it is the same Cyprus. It's the people. Their attitudes have changed. But, you know, even the people, their hearts haven't changed. Because the Bible tells us that we're born in sin, we're shaped in iniquity, and we're separated from God by sin and wicked works. And that applies to every one of us, whether we know each other or not. And so we have this in common, that we're born in sin. So what do we do about it? Well, We've had a reading from Matthew's gospel, and I want us to think about this for a while and just look a bit more about it. I've got some bits of paper here. I used not to need bits of paper, but I'm older than the last time I came here, and my memory isn't what it was. And so, I'm going to look at my bits of paper as I speak to you just to remind me what the Lord has been saying to me. One of the things that's changed in North Cyprus is the fact when I came here, there was a university, the EMU, down at Famagusta. Now, There are so many universities that it's a job to know how many unless you've got more than one pair of hands. What is it, 16 now? Something like that. It's getting on that way, but when it got beyond 10, I stopped counting. And what are they here for? Are they here to educate the people or to make themselves big bank balances? Are you students of education? Or are you gullible people taking for a ride so they can have your money? I don't know. You know better than I do, I'm sure. But this is one of the problems. But some universities have good reputations and some have bad. There was a a professor in a good university who liked to say farewell to his graduates individually. And he had his favorite top man after graduation. And he said to him, it's been lovely having you with us for the past four years. And he said, what are you going to do now? Have you any idea? or have you just been putting it off while you've been enjoying yourself in university? Well, the student said, the graduate said, I've been working hard here in university and I'm not going to stop working hard now. I have plans for the future. I'm going to go on and I'm going to, I have a good CV now, I've got some interviews and I'm looking for a good post. in a big firm and I'm hoping to rise up the ranks and to have a responsible post and go on from there." The professor said, well, I'm glad you've got the future mapped out. He said, what are you going to do after that? Well, he said, I'm hoping to start my own business because that's where the money is. If I'm going to work hard and I'm going to produce the thing that people want, then I'm going to make money. And that money is going to improve my position in the world. I'm going to be able to build up the bank balance. I'm going to get myself a good car. Probably talking about a Mercedes or a BMW or something like that. So many people seem to think that way on this island, don't they? And he said, I'm going to have a good car. And I'm going to have a good life. His professor said, oh, yes. And then what? Well, he said, I'm going to enjoy myself. And I can't do that on my own. So I'm going to have a look around at the girls and see who's available. And I'm going to find the right one. And I'm going to settle down and get married and start a family. Oh yes, said the professor. That's good. And what then? Oh, he said, between us we'll educate the family, we'll have a big house and the bank balance will get better and our lives will get better and we'll enjoy ourselves as we progress in this world and take advantage of the opportunities. Yes, said the professor. And what then? Oh, he said, eventually, when we've got enough money together, and we've got a big enough firm and business, and I don't have to work because all the other people will do it, and the money will still go in the bank, and I'll take early retirement. And, yes, said the professor, what are you going to do then? Well, he said, I'm going to look around this world. A lot of countries I've never been to yet. I've heard all about them. And a lot of them are attractive. I'm going to go around. I'm going to have a world tour and take the family with me. Yes, said the professor. And then what? Well, he said, eventually, after we've been here and done that and seen that and we've satisfied our longings, we'll settle down. after the family have grown up and we'll retire to a little cottage and just enjoy our years of retirement. Yes, said the professor. Sounds good. Then what? Well, he said, I suppose when we get old enough, we'll die. And the professor said, yes. And then what? And then what? The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Jesus said, my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. This student, this graduate, this educated man with a future before him, has not brought God into his thinking. I look around and I think, for the most part, you're younger than I am. In fact, I look around, I can't find anybody older than me. But you've got your futures ahead. Is God a part of it? And this is the important thing. We live in a society which doesn't really know which way it's going. It's a society that's confused, always on the change. You listen to this voice and then that voice. You watch this program and you watch that program. You listen to this preacher and you listen to that preacher. And at the time it sounds good. And then you hear somebody else and it's a change. We have shorter attention spans these days. We shift from one thing to another. And we get our priorities wrong sometimes, don't we? It doesn't matter when we're younger. We've got our future ahead. We can change things and sort it out. But as we get older and we get more entrenched in our ways, it's hard to change our priorities. What are your priorities? When did you last think about the future beyond your present state? I think we all need to do that from time to time. It was 75 years ago. 75 years ago when I was baptized in the church back in England. The man who baptized me quoted Matthew 6, 33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and these things shall be added unto you. I was 10 years of age going on 11, and those words have stuck with me ever since, but not all the time. Not all the time. You see, there are distractions in life. It's all very well to come to church on a Sunday and to hear a verse of scripture and think, yes, that speaks to me. I'm going to remember that. I'm going to do something about that. I'm going to let the Lord be my shepherd. And then we go out and we meet somebody and we forget what's going on. We change our priorities. There's a pastor, Tony Evans, who makes an interesting observation when he says, the problem isn't time. We have time to watch TV. Our problem isn't money. We have our laptops and our smartphones. Our problem is our priorities. The problem is our priorities. Our priorities can only be right if we get the answers to important questions, right? And the first one I want to ask, is Jesus present in your life? Well, you say, that's a silly question because here I am in church on a Sunday morning. But does everyone who goes to church have Jesus present in their life? Or do they go because it's a habit they got into because their parents went to church and took them to church on a Sunday? My friends go to church and I go with them because I haven't got anything better to do. I don't know why you're here this morning. I hope it's because you love the Lord Jesus Christ and you want to worship him in spirit and in truth and you want to grow to know him better and to share him with other people. But if Jesus is not present in our lives, then we'll never get our priorities in the right order. If Jesus is not present, we won't understand spiritual things. In the Epistle to Hebrews, we read that Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. He chose to suffer rather than to enjoy pleasure. where you say, if that's what it means to be a Christian, I don't want to be a Christian. I'll go to church on Sundays, but I'm going to enjoy myself the rest of the week. But we look around the world today, and we've heard about the conflict in Yemen. We've heard about the persecution of Christians in Iran. We know the problems in Turkey. And we have problems here from time to time in North Cyprus. Christians are being more and more persecuted worldwide. In fact, even the foreign secretary of the British government has woken up to the fact that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world at present. What's attractive about being a Christian? The natural man, says Paul writing to the Corinthians, the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. If Jesus isn't present in us, if his spirit isn't in us, then we don't discern or understand the spiritual things. And if Jesus is not present, then we won't love the right things. We'll get our priorities wrong. We'll enjoy the pleasures rather than the persecutions. Well, it's natural, isn't it? But then you see the Bible doesn't talk about the natural men as being the people of God. It's the spiritual people that God inhabits, that Jesus inhabits. The natural man doesn't understand the things of the spirit. So the natural response to pleasure over persecution is not a spiritual thing. So if Jesus is not present, we don't love the right things. Love not the world, said Jesus, neither the things that are in the world. And it was John who said, if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. He that does not love does not know God, for God is love. If Jesus is not present in us, we don't have peace about our priorities. It was A.W. Tozer who said, trying to have peace without a sense of God's presence is like trying to have a bright day without the sun. Well, we all know that even when the sun is behind the clouds, it makes daylight, doesn't it? It just isn't going to happen. How do we know that Jesus is present with us? That's the important thing, isn't it? How do we know that we have Jesus present in our lives? Well, is the question of confession. Have we acknowledged the fact that we have sinned? Have we professed him as Lord and Savior? Romans 10 and 9, if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Does the Holy Spirit live in us? You're not of the flesh, but in spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Has there been a change in our lives? Is there a day when we change from being unbelievers to being believers? Has it changed our way of thinking, our way of behaving? Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. Has there been a transformation in our lives? If these things are true in your life, and if you're honest about it, then Jesus is present in you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We're on the first rung of the ladder. It's a good thing, isn't it, to have that assurance, not because of who we are, but because of what He has done for us on the cross, what He does for us daily, now interceding on our behalf with the Father in heaven. We know that we have passed from death unto life when we have Jesus living in us. But that's the beginning, isn't it? That's the first question. So if Jesus is present in our lives, is He prominent? Is he prominent? Are we closet Christians? It's good on Sundays to be able to come and meet with other Christians and to worship the Lord, to sing hymns of praise, to talk about Him, and to listen to sermons about Jesus. It makes a good day. But what happens on Monday? What happens about Monday when we go to work or we go to college or wherever we go and we work and study with unbelievers? Do we let them know that we belong to Jesus or do we keep quiet and get suppressed in our faith? I know this was a problem I ran into. And as I've gone through life and got older, I've found that other people have the same problems. I was in the army. 36 years of my life was in the military. And there, you couldn't be a closet Christian because, you see, you lived face-to-face with unbelievers 24-7. It wasn't just at work. It wasn't just socializing, but even in the barrack room. You lived in a room with 23 or 24 others. Every moment of the day, you were under observation. It was difficult. And there were times when something would be said that I wasn't comfortable with, and I would keep quiet. And the longer it went on, the harder it was to speak against it, because the people around me thought I was the same as they were. And the longer you leave it, letting people know, the harder it is to stand up for Jesus. The story is told of a missionary to China. It was in language school, and the very first day of class, the teacher entered the room and didn't say a word, but she walked down the passage between the desks and up the next passage, slowly, passing each person in the class. And she came back to the front of the room and addressed the class. And she said, did you notice anything special about me? Did you notice anything special about me? Nobody could think of anything in particular, but one student finally raised her hand. She said, I noticed you had a lovely perfume on. She noticed the teacher's perfume, although the teacher didn't say anything. She just walked around the room. Let me ask you, when you don't have the opportunity to say anything, but you're in a group of unbelievers, is there something in your lifestyle, in your behavior pattern, is there some sense in which you come across as being different from them. It's important. We don't have to say anything, but by your works, you'll be known. How you react in a group of unbelievers, things that are said, actions that are taken, Do you absorb them as if you belong? Or do you reject these things in a way that draws attention? Peter writes, be ready to give a reason for the hope that's within you to those who ask. And they're not going to ask unless they see the difference, are they? If Jesus is present in your life, Is he prominent in your behavior when you're mixing with people that don't know him? If Jesus is prominent in your life, it should bubble over. An old chorus we used to sing when I was much younger, running over, running over. My cup's full and running over. Since the Lord saved me, I'm as happy as can be. My cup's full and running over. Is he prominent in your life? Is he running over? Do people know that you belong to him? It's important. If Jesus is prominent, is he preeminent? And here we come to the crux of the matter. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. Is he present, first of all? That's the important thing. I pray, God, that he's present in each one of your lives this morning. Is he prominent? Does he stand out in your life? Oh, I do hope he does. But is he preeminent? First and foremost, The first thought that comes to your mind in the morning. The last thing that you think about at night. When you come into contact with other people, is he there at the forefront of your thinking and your behavior? So that people say, what makes you different? And we're ready to give a reason for the hope that's in us to those who ask. Is he prominent in your life? Paul says to the Colossians, he is the head of the body, the church, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence, that he might have the first place. When he is preeminent, our desire will be to submit totally and completely to him, and we'll recognize that he deserves nothing less, nothing less, and we will devote ourselves to his service in the three main areas of our lives. If Jesus is preeminent, he will have the first of our time. It's not all about money. We have more to offer than money. In fact, when we're students, we don't have much of that, do we? But we have time. There's 24 hours in everybody's day. Does Jesus have the first of our time? One of the difficulties when pastoring a church is knowing that many who praise God on a Sunday have no time for him during the week. Oh, Sunday's a special day, but so is Monday and Tuesday. and Wednesday, and Thursday, and Friday, and Saturday, when you belong to Jesus. Paul said, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And he says, can't you give yourself to me? Give me your time. Give me your time. When we give him all our time, he allows us free time. He allows us pleasures. He allows us opportunities to serve him and to joy, take joy in the Lord. If Jesus is preeminent, he will have the first of our time. He'll have the first of our talents. We get the parable of the talents, don't we? After a long time, the master came back and the servant, one had five talents. And he said to his master, look, I've got five more. And the master said, enter into the joy of your Lord. And the second servant said, who was given two talents, he said, well, look, I've doubled mine. I've got two. enter into the joy of your Lord. It doesn't matter what your talents are, as long as you use them to the glory of God. They're not my talents, they're His talents, loaned to me for a purpose. As a steward of time and talents, I have a responsibility to Him. But if Jesus is preeminent in our lives, he will have the first of our time, the first of our talents, but also the first of our treasure. Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, he talks about laying up treasure in heaven. Laying up treasure in heaven. What's the use of bank balances on earth when we can't take it with us when we go? And we don't know when we're going. The problem with having bank balances on Earth is depending where you are and what country currency you've got, it goes up and down like a yo-yo and you don't have time to think about the Lord. You've got more time to check the balance and the exchange rate of the currency. You see, What did God, what did Jesus say in the first verse of our reading? You can't serve two masters. You can't serve God and money. There was a missionary who went to Africa with the gospel. a full-time missionary who wandered around Africa, and he was called David Livingstone. He didn't have a big bank balance. His time and his talents and such money as he had was all for the Lord. But one of the things that kept him moving around and serving the Lord was the fact that his brother was a big businessman. and made a lot of money, which he devoted to the mission work of David Livingstone. God doesn't say we shouldn't have money. He doesn't say we shouldn't have riches. It's what we do with them. Can he trust us with riches? Or will we say, we're so rich we don't need God? Or does he so trust us, God so trust us, that he entrusts us as stewards of riches that we might be a blessing to others? Whether it's time, talents, or treasure, they all belong to God. When he is at the head of our list of priorities, everything's right with the world. We're at peace with him. Let's not get upset with the things of the world and what some teachers say who don't know the Lord. I was looking around and some of you may have come across, those of you who are in business studies, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. If you're not a business student, then you may not know about it, but it's the cornerstone of a lot of teaching in business and psychology, and it starts off the bottom of the pyramid, is the physiological needs. Food, water, warmth, and rest. That's important. Me, me, me. I've got to be comfortable. And it goes up the list to security and safety. And then intimate relationships and friends. Esteem needs prestige and feeling of accomplishment until you come to self-actualization. Achieving one's full potential, including creative activities. Now, I've come across some workbooks written by Christian pastors and ministers. And it's more like Maslow's hierarchy of needs than it is the gospel. There is so much written in Christian books that follows secular thinking and leaves out the foundation of the pyramid, which is the rock upon which we build our faith. Christ Jesus, the solid rock, our sure foundation. If he's present in our lives, we can start building. When he becomes prominent in our lives, he can use us to his praise and glory in the extension of his gospel, of his kingdom. But when he's preeminent in our lives, he shines in everything we think and say and do. And when the time comes and we enter into his presence, we will hear, well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of your Lord. And that joy isn't like the pleasures of sin for a season. It's forevermore. May it be your blessing too, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen.